40th Anniversary Train--Longview, TX

[BlakeTyner]

Dear Friends,

Since I know we have several members in Texas, I wanted to let everyone know that the 40th Anniversary Exhibit Train will be stopping in Longview in a few weeks.

Official Website

From my understanding, the exhibit train will deadhead at the rear of 21 from CHI on Tuesday, April 24th, arriving in LVW the next morning. It will be displayed on the BNSF track just south of the Longview Amtrak station (where it will be visible to traffic on Cotton St. all weekend.) Thursday the 27th the train will not be open to the public, but will be hosting over a thousand area school children on field trips.

Additionally, the City of Longview will be coordinating a ceremony at 10am on Saturday, April 28th, for the public groundbreaking on the restoration of the Longview Junction depot, which will be completed by next summer. The depot will serve as a multimodal station, with Amtrak, Longview Transit, GoBus, and (possibly) Greyhound services available.

We're in the process of lining up vendors and exhibitors for the weekend, but we expect there to be opportunities for all age groups: model railroad layouts, food, a children's activity area, etc., as well as tours of the exhibit train itself.

The event is free. Because of limited on-site parking, the City of Longview and Longview Transit will be providing a free shuttle service from parking areas to the depot and back.

I'll be working the event all weekend, so I hope some of y'all are able to attend!

 

[Linda T]

From my understanding, the exhibit train will deadhead at the rear of 21 from CHI on Tuesday, April 24th, arriving in LVW the next morning. It will be displayed on the BNSF track just south of the Longview Amtrak station (where it will be visible to traffic on Cotton St. all weekend.) Thursday the 27th the train will not be open to the public, but will be hosting over a thousand area school children on field trips.

Dang it, there are no layovers in Longview. I'll be leaving SAS for CHI on the 25th the same day the exhibit train will be arriving there. :angry2: I guess I can always wave on my way by. I have a lot of people and things to wave to on this trip, so please don't feel offended if I forget to wave.
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[the_traveler]

I do not think it will deadhead on the back of 21. It is a self contained train with a special locomotive of it's own.

 

[Trogdor]

I do not think it will deadhead on the back of 21. It is a self contained train with a special locomotive of it's own.

Does it have a territory qualified operating crew of its own, as well?

Most of the anniversary train's movements have been deadheading on revenue trains, except in the Northeast, and where the train was heading to some location where the switching would be too disruptive to the existing revenue train.

 

[printman2000]

I do not think it will deadhead on the back of 21. It is a self contained train with a special locomotive of it's own.

Well, deadheading the whole display train would, I think, make scheduling easier. Though I suspect they would need more than the single locomotive the TE usually gets.

 

[BlakeTyner]

I originally wrote that it'd be on the back of 21, but in thinking about it, it would be more logical if they cut it in on the head end. Either way, it should be a part of 21 that day.

 

[sechs]

I do not think it will deadhead on the back of 21. It is a self contained train with a special locomotive of it's own.

Well, deadheading the whole display train would, I think, make scheduling easier. Though I suspect they would need more than the single locomotive the TE usually gets.

Like the one that the anniversary train comes with?
More switchery at Longview....

 

[printman2000]

Except we know how much Amtrak likes to avoid switching.

 

[sechs]

Do we?

 

[jis]

I do not think it will deadhead on the back of 21. It is a self contained train with a special locomotive of it's own.

As a practical matter, why incur the additional cost of trackage charge, negotiating a path and pay the additional operating crew when you can just tack it onto a normal train that already has all of those heading the way you want it to go?

Yes, when it is traveling on the NEC it is different because there are precious few trains that would be suitable to tack it onto while having them maintain their tight schedules. Also when it goes to places not served normally by Amtrak, like Steamtown in Scranton or Strasburg. But barring those it seems to me that the easiest course to take operationally is to tack it onto a train that is already headed that way.

 

[printman2000]

So they did just stick the whole display train between the TE's loco (which happened to be a P40) and the first Superliner car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrAkiThHPLc

 

[guest* Kevin]

Hey I'll be working the event all weekend too! Volunteering Saturday and Sunday on the train, hope a lot of yall can come out even for a short time!

 

[afigg]

Amtrak put out a press release announcing that the 40th Anniversary train would at Longview on April 28 & 29 and then go to Toledo OH on May 5 before ending the year long tour at Grand Central on National Train day. So it will probably head back to CHI on the TE and then to Toledo on the LSL or CL for railfans looking to take pics or videos.

 

[Acela150]

LSL most likely. That way the banging is while people are less likely to notice it. CL and LSL are just about the same as far a length.